The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s2.275

c5.s2.275

Chintâpurni—A celebrated place of pilgrimage on a range of hills of the same name, in Hoshiarpur district, Panjab, containing a temple of Chhinnamastâ whose picture is placed behind a Piṇḍa-mûrti or conical image. The temple is on the summit of a hillock, Chitabhumî—Baidyanâth or Deoghar in the Santal Pargana, containing the temple of Baidyanâtha, one of the twelve Great Liṅgas of Mahâdeva (*Śiva P.*, Bk. I, chs. 38, 55). The Mahâdeva there is said to have been established by Râvaṇa. The place contains also the temple of the goddess Pârvatî, the consort of the god Baidyanâtha. It is said to be one of the fifty-two Pîṭhas (*Hârdapîṭha*), as Satî’s heart fell at this place. In the *Uttara Purâṇa* cited by Francklin in his *Site of Ancient Palibothra*, p. 21, Baidyanâtha is called Paṁpâpurî or Palu-gâon, which is perhaps a corruption of Paralipura or Parali-grâma of the *Śiva Purâṇa*. For a description of the temples of Baidyanâtha or Deoghar, see *JASB.*, 1883, p. 164—‘On the temples of Deoghar’ by Dr. R. L. Mitra. In the *Mahâ-Liṅgeśvara Tantra* in the ‘Hundred Names of Śiva’, it is mentioned that Baidyanâtha and Vakreśvara Mahâdevas are situated in Jhârakhaṇḍa, Siddhinâtha and Târakeśvara Mahâdevas in Râḍha, Ghaṇṭeśvara Mahâdeva on the banks of the river Ratnâkara (now called Kânâ-nadî in the district of Hooghly), and Kapâleśvara Mahâdeva on the banks of the Bhâgîrathî. Râvaṇa, while he was carrying Mahâdeva from Kailâsa, felt a very uneasy sensation when he came to Haritakîvana, the ancient name of Baidyanâtha, as Varuṇa, the god of the waters had entered his belly. In order to relieve himself he placed the god in the hand of Viṣṇu disguised as a Brâhman, and retired to the north-castorn corner of Deoghar called Hârlâjuḍi (a corruption of Harîtakî-vana) to relieve himself, and the result was the Karmanâsâ rivulet flowing by the north of Hârlâjuḍi. In the meantime, Viṣṇu put down Mahâdeva at Deoghar and disappeared (*Śiva P.*, Baidyanâtha Mâhât., ch. 4). The Trikûṭa hill, 6 miles to the east of Baidyanâtha, contains a spring of water. The Tapovana hill where Râvaṇa performed asceticism (*Śiva P.*, Bk. I, ch. 55; *Bṛhat Śiva P.*, II, 20) and which is about the same distance, contains a natural cave.